APC 309

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Question 1
XY Limited is preparing its annual budgets for the year to 31st December 2021. It manufactures and sells one product, which has a selling priceof 410.00. The marketing director believes that the price can be increased to 450.00 with effect from 1st July 2021 and that at this price the sales volume for each quarter of 2021 will be as follows:
	Sales Volume
Quarter 1	28 000
Quarter 2	23 000
Quarter 3	17 000
Quarter 4	32 000
Sales for each quarter of 2022 are expected to be 40 000 units.
Each unit of the finished product which is manufactured requires four units of
component R and three units of component T. Both items are purchased from an
outside supplier. Currently prices are:
Component R	5.00 each
Component T	2.00 each
The components are expected to maintain their current levels of pricing as above during all quarter periods of 2021.
Assembly of the two components into the finished product requires 6 labour hours:
labour is currently paid 6.00 per hour. A 5% increase in wage costs is anticipated to take effect
from 1st October 2021.
Variable overhead costs are expected to be 10 per unit for the whole of 2021, fixed production
overhead costs are excluded from the budget.
Stocks on 31st December 2020 are expected to be as follows:
Finished units	8 000 units
Closing stocks at the end of each quarter are to be as follows:
Finished units	10% of next quarter's sales
Required:
a) Prepare the following budgets of XY Limited for the year ending 31st December
2021, showing values for each quarter and the year in total:
i) sales budget (in s and units)
ii) production budget (in units)
iii) material usage budget (in units)
iv) production cost budget (in s)			35 marks
b) Explain the meaning and critically evaluate the use of continuous or rolling budgets. 15 marks Total 50 marks

Question 2

a) Critically evaluate whether or not Standard Costing procedures can be equally applied

to both service industries and manufacturing companies.

You should support your answer with either examples, articles, case studies or journals to demonstrate similarity or distinctions between the two types of companies when applying standard costing procedures. Calculations can be used to demonstrate answer but should not be the main thrust of the answer. Your answer must include citations demonstrating adequate research.

25 marks

b) The following outcomes were noted for Juniper Ltd using a standard costing and variance

analysis system.

Adverse Favourable

Variances__________________________________________________________________

Material Price 3 500

Material Usage 8 300

Wage Rate 44 000

Labour Efficiency 52 000

Material price variance - adverse

Material usage variance - favourable

Wage rate variance -favourable

Labour efficiency variance- adverse

Juniper operates a standard costing system. Assess the performance of the Production Manager using the figures above and identify and critically evaluate the possible causes of the variances noted above for Juniper Ltd. You can make assumptions on the businesses operations in explaining possible causes.

25 marks, Total 50 marks

The report should include critical evaluation of the models and concepts proposed outlining their merits and limitations. You may incorporate logical assumptions with regard to the company and use numerical examples to illustrate the models and concepts that you propose to adopt

The University policy on cheating collusion and plagiarism will be applied to this piece of work.

Guidance:

Students are encouraged to be inquisitive and innovative in their approach as to what should be included in this report the following may be of some use in providing guidance as to what could possibly be included,although this is in no way meant to be prescriptive.

The aim of the assignment is to help you understand how key areas of strategic management accounting are demonstrated in practice by large, international companies. This will include investigating topics from throughout the course linked to the above issues. Some of the principles, concepts and models will be more relevant to your chosen approach than others and so it is likely that different students will formulate different approaches to the problems. This is normal, it is not expected that all of the course content will be used in the analysis, concentrate on that which you feel is most important.

As part of your work you might find it helpful to briefly explore the underlying theory behind the key areas of investigation that you identify before applying them to report.

With a total of 3,000 words you do not have a lot of room for long introductions so assume you are writing to a sophisticated audience who has a working knowledge of strategic management accounting and is well versed in business theory. Numerical examples for illustrative purposes may be of use but should not be the main thrust of the work. If used they should be to provide evidence to support your findings from your other analysis of position and policies. If other sources are used remember to reference everything!

Please avoid relying too heavily on descriptive sections reproducing information available from course material or the set text. It is your own logical, evaluation of the situation, the interpretation of course material and presentation, with critical analysis, of a coherent strategic plan that will attract high marks.

Marking Guide

The learning outcomes for this module assessed by this piece of work are:

Knowledge

1. A Critical understanding of a range of key strategic management accounting models and concepts.
2. A Critical understanding of the strategic role of management accounting at local and international level
3. A Critical understanding of the merits and limitations of management accounting theory.

Skills

1. How to apply the key management accounting concepts and methodologies in order to contribute to successful decision making in an organisation.

In light of this the assessment criteria in the grid below will be used when assessing your work.

APC 309 Assignment Generic Assessment Criteria

Generic Assessment Criteria - Undergraduate Bachelor's degree

	Categories
	Grade	Relevance Knowledge Analysis Argument and Structure Critical Evaluation Presentation Reference to Literature
	86 -	The work examined is exemplary and provides clear evidence of a complete grasp of the knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. There is also unequivocal evidence showing that all the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that Level are fully satisfied. At this level it is expected that the work will be exemplary in all the categories cited above. It will demonstrate a particularly compelling evaluation, originality, and elegance of argument, interpretation or discourse.
	100%
	76-85%	The work examined is excellent and demonstrates comprehensive knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. There is also excellent evidence showing that all the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that level are fully satisfied. At this level it is expected that the work will be excellent in the majority of the categories cited above or by demonstrating particularly compelling evaluation and elegance of argument, interpretation or discourse and there may be some evidence of originality
		The work examined is of a high standard and there is evidence of comprehensive knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. There is also clearly articulated t evidence demonstrating that all the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that level are satisfied At this level it is expected that the standard of the work will be high in the majority of the categories cited above or by demonstrating particularly compelling evaluation and elegance of argument, interpretation or discourse.
	70 -
	75%
60 - 69%	Directly relevant to the requirements of the assessment	A substantial knowledge of relevant material, showing a clear grasp of themes, questions and issues therein	Good analysis, clear and orderly	Generally coherent and logically structured, using an appropriate mode of argument and/or theoretical mode(s)	May contain some distinctive or independent thinking; may begin to formulate an independent position in relation to theory and/or practice.	Well written, with standard spelling and grammar, in a readable style with acceptable format	Critical appraisal of up-to-date and/or appropriate literature. Recognition of different perspectives. Very good use of source material. Uses a range of sources
Pass
		Some attempt to	Adequate knowledge of a fair range of relevant material, with intermittent evidence of an appreciation of its significance	Some analytical	Some attempt to construct	Sound work which	Competently	Uses a variety of literature which includes some recent texts and/or appropriate literature, though not necessarily including a substantive amount beyond library texts. Competent use of source material.
	50 - 59%	address the	treatment, but	a coherent argument, but	expresses a coherent	written, with only
	requirements of	may be prone to	may suffer loss of focus	position only in broad	minor lapses from
	the assessment: may drift away	description, or to narrative, which	and consistency, with issues at stake stated only	terms and in uncritical conformity to one or	standard grammar, with acceptable
	from this in less	lacks clear	vaguely, or theoretical	more standard views	format
	focused passages	analytical purpose	mode(s) couched in simplistic terms	of the topic
	40 - 49%	Some correlation with the requirements of the assessment but there are instances of irrelevance	Basicunderstanding of the subject but addressing a limited range of material	Largely descriptive or narrative, with little evidence of analysis	A basic argument is evident, but mainly supported by assertion and there may be a lack of clarity and coherence	Some evidence of a view starting to be formed but mainly derivative.	A simple basic style but with significant deficiencies in expression or format that may pose obstacles for the reader	Some up-to-date and/or appropriate literature used. Goes beyond thematerial tutor has provided. Limited use of sources to support a point.
Fail	35 - 39%	Relevance to the	A limited	Heavy	Little evidence of coherent	Almost wholly	Numerous	Barely adequate use of literature. Over relianceonmaterial provided by the tutor.
requirements of	understanding of a	dependence on	argument: lacks	derivative: the writer's	deficiencies in
the assessment may be very	narrow range of material	description, and/or on	development and may be repetitive or thin	contribution rarely goes beyond	expression and presentation; the
intermittent, and may be reduced to its vaguest and least challenging terms		paraphrase, is common		simplifying paraphrase	writer may achieve clarity (if at all) only by using a simplistic or repetitious style
	The evidence provided shows that the majority of the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that Level are satisfied - for compensation consideration.

	30 - 34%	The work examined provides insufficient evidence of the knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. The evidence provided shows that some of the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that Level are satisfied. The work will be weak in some of the indicators.
	15-29%	The work examined is unacceptable and provides little evidence of the knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. The evidence shows that few of the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that Level are satisfied. The work will be weak in several of the indicators.
	0-14%	The work examined is unacceptable and provides almost no evidence of the knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the Level of the qualification. The evidence fails to show that any of the learning outcomes and responsibilities appropriate to that Level are satisfied. The work will be weak in the majority or all of the indicators.